Vehicle signal



Oct. 15, 1946. w. TRAUTNER 'VEHI CLE S IGNAL Filed May 11, 1943 2 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR.

Oct. 15, 1946. w. TRAUTNER VEHI CLE S IGNAL Filed May 11, 1945 r 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W ma Patented Oct. 15, 1946 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE K-D Lamp Company,

notation of Ohio Cincinnati, Ohio, a cor-.

Application May 11, 1943, Serial No. 486,537

2 Claims. 1

My invention relates to signal lamps r lights especially for heavy-duty vehicles. These signals may be of full illuminating intensity for ordinary use, or they may be or blackout construction as hereinafter described in certain embodiments.

For military use, on tanks, trucks and other heavy duty vehicles, it has been found best to provide a sealed construction. This means that for each incandescent bulb a can is provided. At one end of the can there is a sealed closure embodying a lens or transluscent cover (and in blackout constructions, certain filters and masks as well). The bulb proper is located within the can, with its base projecting through aperioration in the can end remote from the lens. The base is soldered or brazed to the can, thus providing a sealed construction whichobviates much of the difficulties arising from dust, mud and water in this part of the apparatus. In most tail-signal assemblies two or more of these cans are located in a housing which contains the sockets for the bulb bases, and which has a cover with perforations or cutouts to disclose the lenses, or desired portions thereof.

An obvious disadvantage of the sealed can. con struction is that when a bulb burns out Or breaks the whole can must be discarded and another one provided. This means that the changing of of a bulb involves the changing of attendant parts which may and in most instances do cost more than the bulb. This is uneconomical. Also, the maintenance of a reserve supply of bulbs means the maintenance of a reserve supply of complete cans, involving problems of bulk, weight and space.

An object of my invention is the provision of a structure in which every advantage of the sealed can is realized, but in which bulbs may be replaced without the necessity of replacing the combination of can, seal, lens, filter and mask.

Another object of my invention is the provision of a structure such as the one hereinabove characterized, in which certain advantages of orientation may be obtained, hitherto imperfectly obtainable, or not obtainable at all.

These, and other objects of my invention which will be set forth hereinafter or will be apparent to one skilled in the art upon reading these specifications, I accomplish by that certain construction and arrangement of parts of which I shall now describe the aforesaid exemplary embodiments. Reference is made to the drawings forming part hereof and in which:

Figure 1 is a front elevational view of an exemplary vehicle tail signal.

Figure 2 is a vertical section thereof.

Figure 3 is a sectional view of a can for another type of stop signal or taillight.

Figure 4 is an elevational view of one type of incandescent bulb with a mounting fixture thereon.

Figure 5 is an end elevation of the structure shown in Figure 4,

Figure 6 is a side view of another type of incandescent bulb with a mounting fixture in place thereon.

Figure 7 is an end View of a structure shown in Figure 6.

Figure 8 is a perspective view of a can from the rear.

Referring first to Figures 1 and 2, wherein I have shown an exemplary signal device for the rear of a tank, truck or other vehicle, l represents a cup-shaped body, having a cooperating cover member, 2. At the back or bottom of the housing I, there is a stamping 3, shaped as shown, and fastened to the bottom in any suitable way. A pair of socket members, 4 and 5. extend through perforations in the bottom of the housing I, and in the stamping 3, and may be held in place in any suitable fashion. I have shown peripheral ribs 6, about mid-way of the length of the socket tubes, with these ribs engaging and held tightly between the bottom of the housing I, and the stamping 3. A mounting belt, or other means by which the signal may be attached to a vehicle, is shown at I. It will be understood thatfor'mo'unting purposes, a suitable bracket may be employed and may have provision for angular adjustment of the signal structure.

Within the housing I, I have shown a pair of cans, 8 and 9, the general shape of which may be anything appropriate to the particular service which the signal device is to perform. A common shape for a stop and tail-signal device is generally shown in Figure 8. Hitherto, as already indicated, it-ha's been the practice to place incandescent bulbs. in these cans with their bases extending through perforations in and soldered to the can bottoms. My improvement in this structure will hereinafter be outlined.

At the other end of the cans there is a sealed light emitting structure. The can end is flanged or turned outwardly as at In. For blackout purposes the light emitting structure may comprise several parts. First, there may be a front lens or translucent element indicated at II. Behind this there may be a cup-shaped member I2, having a peripheral flange l3. The cup-shaped member I2, is usually made of a tinted translucent material, so that it may act as a filter, or, if desired, a separate filter may be employed. In the specific exemplary embodiment, those portions of the member l2 through which light is to pass are recessed, as at I 4. Then, in the process of further manufacture, protective structures are placed in these recesses, and the remainder of the hollow interior of the member 12 is sprayed with some opaque coating substance, usually black in color. The recesses M are left uncoated by this operation. The black coating serves as a mask and renders unnecessary the use of separate mask plates and the like, though these may be employed if desired.

In the formation of a sealed structure, an annular sealing ring I5, U-shaped in cross-section and made of rubber or any other suitable sealing substance is placed on the flange I3 of the member I2. This sealing ring rests on the flange ll} of the can 3, and the lens II, in turn, rests on the sealing ring [5. A collar [6, having an inturned flange at one side is slipped over this assembly, and a flange is rolled or turned over at its other side, so as to form a structure in which one of the flange rests against the lens H, and the other engages the flange E of the can, clamping these elements together sufficiently tightly to form a seal. 1

It will be understood that the structure just described may be varied to suit the nature of the service which the signaling device is to perform.

Figures 1 and 2 illustrate a blackout structure,

comprising a blackout stop signal which will be intermittent in its action, and a blackout tail ignal. However, for stop, directional or tail signals or other signal uses requiring full intensity of the illumination, mask structures and the like may be eliminated. In Figure 3 I have shown a Fresnel prism lens H, which may or may not be tinted. In this structure the lens merely lies against a sealing ring l8, which, in turn, lies against the can flange it, while the collar structure l6 clamps the parts together in the way hereinabove described.

In blackout structures, where the angle of illumination is important either to prevent the lights from being seen from the air or to provide a visual indication of the angle at which the vehicle is being observed, less than the full area of the front lens H is normally utilized. Where this is the case, the utilizable portion of the front lens is generally brought outwardly, as at l9 (Figure 2).

The cover member 2 is a cup-shaped member which in the case of blackout signals usually will be formed with depressions 20 and 2! in it over substantially the areas of the can ends. The depressed portions 20 and 2| will then have cutouts 22 and 23 in them to disclose the lenses as shown, or more restricted cutouts to disclose the protuberances l9 on the lenses of the cans. When the cans are placed in position with the bases of the bulbs in the socket 4 and 5, they are clamped in position by means of the cover 2 which, in turn, is held in place by screws 24 and 25, threading into brackets (not shown) attached to the housing I. Under the pressure exerted by the screws, the depressed portions 20 and 2| of the cover 2 engage the can ends and push them to the rear.

As an aid to assembly under conditions of darkness, I prefer to provide my cover with an orienting protuberance or rib 26 at one side. The housing I may be provided with a mating protuberance, enforcing a proper positioning of the cover;

but this is not usually necessary. The point of the protuberance 26 is the giving of a tactile indication whereby the cover may be readily applied in the proper orientation, so that the screw holes in which screws 24 and 25 engage may be readily located by the operator, and so that where the interengagement of lens protuberances and perforations in the cover member is a feature of the construction, such interengagement may be readily obtained. It will, of course, be understood that the socket members 4 and 5 will in use contain suitable connector plugs. These have not been illustrated; but the sockets, as in Figure 2, show locking notches for these connector members.

The general disadvantages of passing the lamp bases through holes in the can bottoms and soldering the bases to the bottoms have been pointed out above. There are also other disadvantages. One of these is th difficulty of securing proper orientation of the bulbs in the cans. In general, two conditions give rise to a need for orientation. Certain tail signals require double filament bulbs which have, in addition to a base sleeve, two end contact members. The need for orientation here is obvious; but it is also relatively easy to obtain, because the contact points on the base are outside the can and give visual indication of orientation during assembly. But in heavy-duty vehicles subject to much jarring and jolting it has been found that the orientation of the incandescent filaments in illuminating bulbs has a pronounced effect on bulb life where the bulbs are horizontally disposed. A vertical disposition of the filaments is frequently conducive to shorting, whereby the bulbs burn out; and it has been found that the life expectancy of bulbs is greatly prolonged by disposing the filaments in a horizontal position. Where bulbs are inserted in and their bases soldered to cans, such orientation is extremely diflicult to obtain, for the reason that the bulb is located inside the can and away from easy observation, while the desired orientation, even if initially obtained, can be destroyed by slight rotation of the bulb. In the practice of my invention I not only provide a sealed structure from which the bulbs can be individually removed and in which they may be replaced, but I also make provision for obtaining the desired orientation structurally and in operation.

In the end of the can 8 of Figure 8, I provide a perforation large enough to accept, not the base of the bulb, but the enlarged glass portion. The edges of this perforation are preferably inwardly turned, as at 21. Also about the periphery of the perforation and spaced from the edge of it, I prefer to provide an annular bead or depression 28. Also, at one point on the edge of the perforation, I prefer to provide an orienting notch 29. This, of course, could be a protuberance and still function in the manner hereinafter set forth; but in the usual procedure of turning inwardly the edges of the can bottom about the perforation therein to form th flange 21, it is more convenient to form the orienting configuration 29 as a further depression.

The base of the bulb is soldered or otherwise sealed to a fixture 39. This will hereinafter be more fully described. It has a part shaped to enter the perforation in the can bottom and an outlying flange between which and the can bottom there will be located a sealing ring 3|. When th cans ar assembled in the signal structure, and the cover 2 is tightened up as hereinbefore described, it will be evident that the fixtures 30 and the sealing rings 3| effectively seal the can ends. Yet when the cans are removed from the signal structure, the bulbs and their fixtures may be readily removed, and new ones placed in the same cans. For bulb replacement there need only be stocked a set of bulbs and fixtures, since the cans are capable of remaining in service indefinitely. For heavy-duty vehicles the lenses, filters and the like are usually made of translucent plastic not subject to breakage.

Figures 6 and '7 illustrate one type of bulb and fixture assembly. The fixture itself is a stamping 30, having a short cylindrical body 32, at one end of which is the annular flange 33. At the other end of the body 32, there is an inturned part 34, providing a hole to accept the base 35 of the bulb. The inner end of the part 34 is slightly outwardly turned, as at 36. This has two purposes. For one thing, it provides a channel in which solder may be located, as at 31, and, by disposing the metal edge of the fixture somewhat outwardly from the base of the lamp itself, it insures that the fixture will be contacted by the ends of the sockets 4 or 5, when the signaling structure is clamped together. This will be clear in Figure 2; and it provides positive abutting contact without undue precision in the parts.

At one side of the cylindrical portion 32, as best seen in Figure 7, I form an orienting protuberance 38, which co-acts with the orienting groove 29 in the perforation in the can body. The fixture may be provided with certain peripheralnotches 39 in the flange 33, so that the fixture may be held by the pins in a soldering machine. The bulb base 35 is inserted in the fixture, as will be clear from Figure 6, and the fixture is then placed in the soldering machine. The bulb filament or filament can be exactly oriented with respect to the protuberance 38. Solder and flux may be placed in the channel, as at 31, and the soldering machine, by applying heat to the flange 33, will cause the solder and flux to be melted (through heat conduction in the body of the fixture) to effect the necessary seal between the bulb base and the fixture. When the solder has set, the bulb and fixture can be removed from the soldering machine, and after cooling, the sealing ring 3| may be applied to and cemented against the fixture flange 33. The ring 3| may be of rubber or similar material but can be constructed of such substances as asphalted felt or the like.

As indicated, the hole in the can bottom, and by consequence the cylindrical portion 32 of the fixture, must be somewhat larger than the diameter of the bulb employed. In some types of signaling structures the bulb base cannot be centered in the direction of the width of the can.

. 6 Where a large bulb is required, it may frequently be necessary to clecenter the bulb with respect to the fixture. This is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5, where the fixture 3lJa designed to accept the base ll of the bulb 4D has the cylindrical part 32--a, and a similar configuration of the inturned parts, excepting that the perforation which accepts thebase 4| is decentered, as shown. Otherwise the structure is the same, except for a necessarily enlarged size of the fixture 3|la. In Figure 5 I have shown the base 4| as having two contact points 42 and 43. The orientation of these points with respect to the orienting protuberances 38 during the operation of soldering will be clear from the description which has gone before. Orientation is factilitated because the bulbs and filaments can at all times be readily observed.

Modifications maybe made in my invention without departing from the spirit of it. Having thus described my invention in certain exemplary embodiments, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

1. In an illuminating device, a can, a lens having a sealed relationship with one end of the can, the other end of the can being closed except for a perforation in said end, said perforation being of a size to accept the bulb of an incandescent lamp, an incandescent lamp having a bulb and base, and a fixture on said base and sealed thereto, said fixture having a portion for co-acting with said can to effect a sealed connection when said fixture and lamp are in place on said can with the bulb within said can, and the parts held together by pressure exerted respectively on the can and the fixture, the edges of said can end being inturned about said perforation to form a substantially cylindrical recess, said fixture having a cylindrical portion fitting in said recess, and an outlying peripheral flange substantially paralleling the can end, the walls of said cylindrical recess having a groove, and the cylindrical part of said fixture having a mating ridge, the walls of the said cylindrical portion of the fixture bein inturned at one end to provide a recess for the acceptance of the base of said lamp, and then slightly outturned to provide about said base a groove for sealing substance and an abutment whereby pressure may be exerted on said fixture by a socket in which said base is placed.

2. The structure claimed in claim 1 in combination with a housing including a body and a cover, a socket in said body, means on the cover for engaging the can, and means for drawing the cover to the body whereby to clamp the fixture against the can by means of said socket.

WAGN TRAUTNER. 

